2020–2021 Ernst Stiefel String Quartet-in-Residence

Paul Aguilar, violin

Rachel Stenzel, violin

Eva Kennedy, viola

Hannah Moses, cello

Each year, Caramoor selects a promising young string quartet for a year-long residency. The Ernst Stiefel String Quartet-in-Residence lends their time and talents to Caramoor’s Student Strings program in secondary schools with a classroom-based program of concerts, conversations, and performance clinics. The Quartet also performs at Caramoor throughout their residency, enabling the public to experience these exciting, young players in an intimate setting. The Callisto Quartet is the 21st quartet in this residency program. Since its formation in 2016 at the Cleveland Institute of Music, the Callisto Quartet has quickly garnered top prizes in nearly every major international chamber music competition and has been hailed by audiences across North America and Europe. Grand prize winners of the 2018 Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition and Second Prize Winners of the 2019 Banff International String Quartet Competition, they have also taken home prizes from the Bordeaux (2019), Melbourne (2018), and Wigmore Hall (2018) competitions. Currently serving as the Graduate String Quartet in Residence at the Shepherd School of Music at Rice University in Houston, TX, they also study with Günter Pichler of the Alban Berg Quartet at the prestigious Escuela Superior de Música Reina Sofía in Madrid, Spain.

Kathy Schuman, Caramoor’s Artistic Director, recently spoke to them about their upcoming residency.

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2020–21’s Ernst Stiefel String Quartet-in-Residence

Recently awarded the 2nd Prize at the prestigious 2019 Banff International String Quartet Competition, the Callisto Quartet become Caramoor’s 21st Ernst Stiefel String Quartet-in-Residence.

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A musical journey inward

by Corinna da Fonseca-Wollheim

As a music critic writing for The New York Times I’ve attended a lot of concerts. Sometimes 100 a year, spanning a dazzling variety of styles and periods, performers and venues. Most of the time, my attention was focused on the musicians and what and how they were playing. That was my job, after all.

But in December 2018, I attended a concert that directed my focus inward, onto the process of listening itself. The event, at Princeton University, invited audience members to take part in a short guided meditation practice at the beginning of the recital. When the music began, it unfolded inside a space of such concentrated silence that the sounds rang out in brilliant clarity. I remember the uncanny feeling that the music was coming from inside of me, that the barrier between me and not-me had dissolved — advanced stuff to a novice meditator like me.

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London-born Anna Clyne (b. 1980) is a Grammy-nominated composer of acoustic and electro-acoustic music, combining resonant soundscapes with propelling textures. She’s collaborated with cutting-edge choreographers, film-makers, visual artists and musicians, and her works are performed throughout the US and around the world. Recent honors include commissions from Carnegie Hall, Southbank Centre, Los Angeles Philharmonic, BBC Scottish Symphony, and the Houston Ballet; performances by BBC Symphony Orchestra, Australian Chamber Orchestra, Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra, São Paulo Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre National de Lyon, Royal Stockholm Philharmonic; and residencies with Chicago Symphony Orchestra, L’Orchestre national d’Île-de-France, and the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra.

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